Expected to be released in the early months of 2019, Samsung Galaxy S10 is rumored to bring several new features. One feature that has stirred interest in technological experts is its much anticipated ultrasonic fingerprint reader, showcased by Qualcomm at a recent event held in China last week.

DJ Koh said that the Galaxy S10 does not use an optical fingerprinting solution because optical fingerprinting can cause a bad user experience. Otherwise, Samsung could adopt it two years ago. We will bring a better screen fingerprinting experience for S10.

According to the twitter user @Universeice, who is also a Samsung insider, S10 may be the first one to work with this technology, though it would definitely not be the only one. He quoted a recent report by Ming-Chi Kuo and suggested that the sensor on Galaxy S10 would not be an optical one but rather an ultrasonic sensor embedded inside the screen which will use ultrasound for reading fingerprints and is much more efficient.

This is a next-step technology, aimed at completely eliminating the need for physical home buttons. Also, they have a significant advantage over the usual optical sensors as they will work even if the display is dirty or the fingers are wet and the entire phone screen will act as a huge fingerprint sensor. Ultrasonic waves will be able to read through everything.

Different Samsung series smartphones are expected to use this latest sensor technology including S10, Galaxy A series phones and Galaxy Note 10. The Galaxy S10 is reportedly coming in three different sizes, however only the bigger size models will have the ultrasonic sensor technology made by Qualcomm. The sensor size is 0.5mm so it does not add much thickness to the smartphone itself.

The fingerprint technology was introduced by Qualcomm last year but only a few smartphones have yet embraced it as it only works through flexible OLED displays. It looks like Samsung is all ready to take the lead as it is currently using OLED displays on a large scale.

Maira is a system analyst for the last 10 years. She likes to explore, experience and understand new technologies shaping the future. She was a key member of the MUM "Mera Urdu Messenger"s (R&D) team, the first ever Urdu messenger released by CRI in the 90s.